Tuesday, November 01, 2016

And Another Fiber Player Gets Acquired

The big news this week was that CenturyLink is acquiring Level(3). Well, then Broadsoft bought VoIP Logic. And today FPL Fibernet gets picked off.

The parent company of FPL FiberNet, NextEra Energy, has entered into a definitive agreement to sell FiberNet to Crown Castle International Corp. This is a strange move for Crown Castle, who owns 40,000 wireless towers and 18,000 small cells, but also 17,000 miles of fiber. The deal is worth $1.5 Billion. The transaction, which is subject to receipt of regulatory approvals and satisfaction of customary closing conditions, is expected to be completed in the first half of 2017.

Just to note, Crown Castle owns fiber but doesn't sell it. It uses dark fiber for small cell deployments and backhaul.

In April 2015, "Crown Castle is acquiring Quanta Fiber (called Sunesys), a subsidiary of Quanta Services, for about $1 billion in cash, a deal that will immediately bolster the wireless tower company's dark fiber capabilities for small cell backhaul services." [fierce]

No comments: